55 Gallon Stocking Suggestions

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Psylk87

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Jan 14, 2013
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Pretty straight forward. I just got my hands on a 55 gallon tank for amazingly cheap. ($100 for the tank and stand!) I was wanitng to get some stocking suggestions for a nice well rounded tank. This will be the largest tank I have owned.
 
Well, it depends on if you want live plants, community, coldwater, tropical, semi-agressive, agressive, etc.

What kind of fish are you interested in?
 
Hi there! Well first make sure you get a filter,lights, heater, and all! And cycle your tank!
But for stock, you can do a community tank or a cichlid tank. So if you want cichlids I don't know a ton about them, but a community tank I can help with. Here is a cool list
1 angelfish
2 Bolivian rams
8 cardinal tetras
6 Cory catfish
12 rumynose tetras
6 harqualin rasboras
 
Well, it depends on if you want live plants, community, coldwater, tropical, semi-agressive, agressive, etc.

What kind of fish are you interested in?
I am leaning towards planted I have some smaller planted tanks so I think a big one would be cool. I don't really have any favorite interest in fish. I like pretty much everything. So any ideas or recs would be great! I have never had this much room to decide before lol
 
To add to what I said above, a big amazon sword in the middle, onion plant along the back, and tiger lotus and Anubis spread along the floor
 
If you are considering a planted tank the very first thing you need to do is decide what type lighting your going to do. Lighting is what will determine what type plants you can grow sucessfully.

Also you need to consider substrate. If your only doing low light plants then using sand or a very small grain pea gravel would work. If your going to get better lighting such a T5HO's or a better grade of LED's then I would suggest doing some type of commercial substrate that has a high CEC (cation exchange capacity) which means the substrate can absorb nutrients from the detris and water column and hold them for plant use. There are many brands of commercial substrate. I use Eco-complete in my tanks, but there are many others. I would suggest staying away from Flourite as it is very dusty even after it's in the tank.

Plants can be suggested after lighting is determined but if you would go with medium lighting there are a ton of plants you could use. You can view my heavily planted tank via the link at the bottom of the page. Also look through these tanks for ideas... Your Tanks - Browsing.

As for stock you could do a rainbowfish tank since there are tons of different colored rainbowfish. Oddballfish.com is a good place to view many of the types and colors of them. Along with the rainbows you could add a school of cardinal tetras to really make the tank colorful, then add 3 yo-yo or 6 kuhli loaches for bottom dwellers. Another option could be having 2 angels, 2 groups of schooling fish, and 6 cory cats. You have a ton of options. Or is you want to have a unique tank you could do a group of 6 glass cats and 3 upside down cats, a pearl gourami or possibly a pair along with cory's or loaches. This size tank offers alot of options.
 
I am leaning towards planted I have some smaller planted tanks so I think a big one would be cool. I don't really have any favorite interest in fish. I like pretty much everything. So any ideas or recs would be great! I have never had this much room to decide before lol


Well, if you want plants, Africat Cichlids are out. You know, Mbuna, etc. But you can do Dwarf Cichlids, Angel Fish, those types of Cichlids. All of those work well in a planted community.

You could do

1 Pair Rams (Bottom)
8 or so Cory Cats (Bottom
15 Cardinal Tetras (Middle)
15 RummyNose Tetras (Middle
15 Hatchet Fish (Top)


or

1 Pair Angel Fish (mid-top)
15 Larger Bodied Tetras - Cardinal, Rummy, Emperor, Lemon, X-Ray, Penguin, etc
15 Larger Bodied Rasboras - Harlequin, Siccortail, etc. (Sorry that's all I can think of, I am more of a micro rasbora person!)
1 Pleco
or substitute one of the schools for Cherry Barbs
 
Hmmm, Rivercats is a genius! This forum would be fine is she was the only one giving advice..... LOL ;)
 
Well, if you want plants, Africat Cichlids are out. You know, Mbuna, etc. But you can do Dwarf Cichlids, Angel Fish, those types of Cichlids. All of those work well in a planted community.

You could do

1 Pair Rams (Bottom)
8 or so Cory Cats (Bottom
15 Cardinal Tetras (Middle)
15 RummyNose Tetras (Middle
15 Hatchet Fish (Top)


or

1 Pair Angel Fish (mid-top)
15 Larger Bodied Tetras - Cardinal, Rummy, Emperor, Lemon, X-Ray, Penguin, etc
15 Larger Bodied Rasboras - Harlequin, Siccortail, etc. (Sorry that's all I can think of, I am more of a micro rasbora person!)
1 Pleco
or substitute one of the schools for Cherry Barbs

These stocking a alittle too heavy. You need to take into consideration the adult/mature size of fish. Plus whenever adding angels to a tank you really do not want to overcrowd a tank plus you need to be sure the tetras are not known to be nippers. Cardinal, rummynose and lemon are 3 of the best tetras for keeping with angels. But there are other good non-nippers such as threadfin rainbowfish and white cloud mountain minnows to name a couple. Also remember that many types of tetras are plant nibblers. Even angels nibble plants when they don't have enough plant matter in their diet.
 
I have been reading about Firemouth Cichlids and have read they are pretty docile and often do really well in community tanks. Do you think I could do a community tanks with a pair of them and then some pretty schooling fihs? What would be good tank mates for a pair of firmouths?
 
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